If you read the awful Mark Franchetti article (see below) and strip it of spin, some facts do emerge which confirm the truth of my account.

– Usmanov’s “pardon” did indeed come from Uzbekistan and had nothing to do with Mikhail Gorbachev, contrary to the lies of Schillings

– Usmanov was never a political prisoner opposed to communism. He was indeed convicted for corrupt dealings. He claims he was the accidental victim of a friend being set up – even if that were true, it does not make him an anti-communist political prisoner, which is how Schillings attempted to portray him.

– I published that

Key to this triumph has been the Uzbek oligarch Alisher Usmanov, chairman of Gazprominvest Holdings. This subsidiary is the channel for massive slush funds. In November 2004, for example, a payment of $88 million to Gulnara, the daughter of President Karimov of Uzbekistan, secured Uzbekistan’s gas contracts for Gazprom from under the noses of the United States, which had originally secured them through a bribe from the subsequebtly defunct Enron. In a series of transactions typical of Gazprom, at the same time Usmanov transferred half of a Russian bank, Mapobank, to Putin’s private secretary, Piotr Jastrzebski. Jastrzebski was Usmanov’s former flatmate at Moscow Diplomatic Academy and bagman for Putin. Putin instructed Karimov in return for the cash to kick out the US military base which dominated Central Asia, and Gazprom had secured the strategic kingpin to dominate the Central Asian and Caucasus gas reserves.

Now that is the first published admission I have seen of the key Usmanov/Jastrzebski relationship. Franchetti shows that I was right about this, and about the origin of that relationship as students. Might this not indicate to a less biased observer that my sources on Usmanov are sound?

That makes three absolutely key things I have published about Usmanov that are now shown to be true. Is there one thing I have published that has been disproved by the hordes of mainstream media looking to attack us?

The fact is, so many journalists in the UK are either in the pay of MI6 (and 5) or else don't need to be paid because they act as mouthpieces for these bodies and their agendas, through political, social and, yes, sometimes even familial connections and loyalties. A few are even covert officers of HMG. Tom Leonard wrote a poem, 'The Unfair Cop' about being interviewed by someone he later thought was basically a policeman. I think that I have been interviewed by at least one (to my knowledge). Most of the Industrial correspondants during the 1960s and '70s were in the pay of MI5, as since has been acknowledged, but nowadays, it would tend to be the political reporters (some arts/ cultural) and of course, foreign correspondants. Did anyone read the Independent's piece on the allegations of senior journalistic involvement in the drafting of Blair's '45 minute' dossier? This kind of symbiosis is the rule rather than the exception, I'm afraid. This is the way the state and its big bedfellows manifest through the pantomime of a supposedly free, corporate press, left, right and centre. Look at the monotony of the propaganda against Iran, right now, every day, drip, drip, drip… Remember the names of the journalists concerned, note them down in a little hardback black book, and you're likely to have compiled a partial list of agents of influence in the world of information. Then what do you do? Question everything, always consider the broader picture, seek other sources of information (like this excellent website!), never succumb to the herd mentality. In short, refuse to be brainwashed.

Hi, my name is Muzaffar, i’m Uzbek and I have a comment on your views about ALisher Usmanov.

Being a BSW(social work) student and most of all, a resident of Uzbekitan, I strongly disagree with most of your points since they’re all biased and even fabricated, you don’t seem to any credible arguments or facts agains Mr Usmanov. NOW, Just think about it – the whole world is just like that, i mean everything is all about business, take the US 4xample; the war in Iraq is all about geopolitical influence and oil in the first place. And DO YOU KNOW that some of the HUGE US corporation leaders have always had ties with MAFIA, they still do, and will always influence US policies overseas, right. Chelsea for example, is now of the finest world clubs due to Russian investments. Every other UK resident wants to greet Mr. Abramamovich in person. As for our country however, we have had tremendous changes by now brought about by foreign investments and particularly due to Alisher Usmonov’s policies. The situation is way better since the time you, SIR, were kicked out of this country because of your immoral behaviour with Uzbekistani prostitutes. how can you claim he is a criminal if you can’t even prove his guilt, what you said above are just nothing but rumors.

You, Mr. Murray, are the one to be refered to as criminal and charged with SEXUAL DEPRAVITY or even a harrasment since you were hanging out with underage non adult females at Tashkent nightclubs, namely SKY CLUB, while you were working as a British ambassador in Uzbekistan. You organized round table with bunch of idiots whose minds you could easily manipulate with your democracy propoganda and lost your job as a result. why don’t you think broadly about Central Asia from now on. P.S. life never stays the same and people like Alisher Usmanov are the ones to make a REAL DIFFERENCE, but never people like you SIR !!!!